Advertisers Tailgate the Road Warriors

To get a sense of Linda McSweeney's life, watch the odometer in
her Dodge Stratus. It jumps about 800 miles a week, logging her
zig-zags across Massachusetts as an agency manager with First
American Title Insurance Corp. Linda, 36, does everything behind
the wheel: apply makeup, drink coffee, listen to the radio, catch
up on her reading (courtesy of books on tape), conduct business
with clients on her cell phone. Everyday at 4:30 pm, she pulls over
to the side of the road to return calls left on her voicemail back
at the office. Then it's back home to spend time with her husband
and three sons, ages 15, 13, and 7. She hears a bit of TV news
while making dinner, but doesn't subscribe to a newspaper anymore
because, frankly, there's no time to read it. She needs time to
sleep-so she can clock more miles tomorrow.

Linda has plenty of company on the road. Roughly 100 million
Americans drive to work, according to the 1990 Census Bureau
"Journey-to-Work" study, and their commute is growing: in 1995,
workers logged an average of 11.6 miles between home and office, up
36 percent since 1983. Male drivers spend an average of 81 minutes
per day in the car, while women record about 64 minutes daily.
Radio and outdoor advertisers have long tried to connect with weary
road warriors, but it's not easy to keep their attention,
especially when the "scan" button on the car stereo is a few inches
away. Today, marketers are experimenting with new innovations to
bolster recognition-and deliver real results. Haven't passed a
talking billboard yet? Don't worry, you will soon.

The airwaves offer one of the best opportunities for advertisers
to get inside cars. Radio listening peaks during morning and
evening rush hours, when commuters tune in for traffic reports or a
few minutes with Howard Stern. Direct-response spots account for
$5.7 billion, or 41 percent, of all radio advertising expenditures,
according to the Direct Marketing Association. But while many
drivers may want to act when they hear these messages, says Stewart
Yaguda, president of Radio 2000, a business development division at
radio-sales firm Interep, they're unlikely to dial an 11-digit
toll-free number while in the passing lane. "If you broadcast a
number like 1-800-DEMOGRAPHICS, the driver has to look for the D on
their cell phone, then the E," he says. "By the time they reach M,
they're probably in an accident."

Cellular Linking, based in Chicago, thinks it can help radio
advertisers boost their response rates. Its "abbreviated dialing"
technology allows cell phone users to respond to an advertisement
by calling a three-digit number, like #800. The call is toll-free,
and more important for cell users, so is the air time. Barry Zoob,
president of Cellular Linking, likens the service to calling 411. A
"concierge" answers the line, asks which advertiser you're calling,
and routes you to the appropriate call center. Advertisers pick up
the wireless and long-distance fees, which run about $5 or $6 per
call, according to Zoob. The company offers the service in a
limited number of markets, but hopes to penetrate 80 percent of the
nation's top 100 markets by year's end.

The demographics of wireless consumers make them a lucrative
target for advertisers. According to the Personal Communications
Industry Association, 38 percent of all U.S. households own a
wireless phone, up from 31 percent in 1997. The average wireless
phone user is 39 years old and earns $62,600 a year. Roughly 70
percent are married and 78 percent own their home. "These targets
aren't very responsive to traditional direct response media," says
Zoob. "Forty-two percent don't read newspapers every day and
they're not getting hit by your message on TV at night." Maybe
that's because they're stuck in traffic: according to the Cellular
Telecommunications Industry Association. cell phone consumers place
85 percent of their calls from a vehicle.

General Motors Acceptance Corp., the consumer finance division
of General Motors, recognized the importance of the wireless-user
market early on. In 1996, it test-marketed a direct-response radio
campaign using Cellular Linking's abbreviated dial service. The
60-second spots, promoting GMAC's "SmartLease" program, generated
twice as many prequalified leads as standard radio ads with just a
1-800 number. The campaign spread to six markets in 1997 with
similar results, and continues today. GMAC also now features the
number on its outdoor advertising. "This technology allows you to
catch the consumer at the initial point of interest," says Jeffrey
Scott, executive vice president-managing director of Campbell-Ewald
in Warren, Michigan, which handled the campaign for GMAC. "Plus,
the demographics of the cellular audience are very attractive. They
skew much higher in disposable income and have a proclivity to
investigate products and services they're interested in." GMAC's
radio expenditures topped $1 million in 1997, according to
Competitive Media Reporting. Other companies have also tapped
Cellular Linking's services, including Geico Insurance,
Lincoln-Mercury, and Boston Chicken.

Billboard advertising raises a number of challenges for
marketers. While consumers may listen to a radio spot for as long
as a minute, they whiz by a billboard in about seven seconds.
Finding outdoor space that's available and located in the right
markets can be another hurdle. Still, the outdoor advertising is
booming, partly due to technological improvements that have cut the
time needed to generate a campaign in several locations. Indeed,
the Outdoor Advertising Association estimates billboard ad revenues
in 1998 to hit $2.3 billion, up 9 percent from 1997.

A much-needed dose of creativity has also helped billboards
reach new heights. Joe Boxer, the underwear company, ran a $250,000
billboard campaign during the last two months in seven national
markets that asked passersby to tune in to a specific radio
frequency. When they did, listeners heard a humorous message about
Joe Boxer that sounded like someone was scanning channels on a
radio dial. Passersby could pick up the micro-radio station for
about a mile, says Andrew Milder, president of Business Broadcast
Systems, which provided the system for Joe Boxer. In another
campaign, Atlantic Records broadcast a toll-free number on its
frequency so people could call in for free concert tickets and CDs.
The record label later told Milder that the promotion blew out its
phone banks. What could be next for Milder's company? Talking
billboards on Sunset Strip touting the Grammy Awards on Feb.
24.

Talking billboards can do more than just publicize events.
Milder set up a frequency last year for a billboard that advertised
a new, upscale housing development in California. Listeners to the
channel learned about the development's amenities, pricing options,
and other details as they drove by. Billboards like this one could
have applications even after folks move in, Milder suggests. It
might become a community radio, he says, informing residents about
activities in the development, such as afterschool programs for
kids. Just what today's harried mobile consumers need: staying
close to home, even when they're on the road.